A Perished Atmosphere
by Nixi Stasia
Summary: A dark interpretation of Lost/Unwound Future. For a second time, Claire had gone. The Professor had watched her vanish out of the world when she'd already been gone for ten years. But then he heard her voice and another man's echo throughout his home. Goodbyes are painful, but you can't always let go. So what do you do when you aren't the only man loved by a dead woman?


**AN: So, this story idea originally wasn't mine. But, I stole it. Then played around with it a bit. So now it's more mine. Still. I have permission, so it's okay. **

**Now, this story is basically a parody, since it will be containing quite a bit of OOC (mostly with Claire) and it goes against the Clayton ship that I have loved to pieces since I played Lost Future 3 years ago. However, since it is a rather dark story, I can't exactly place it under the parody genre, so I just thought I would mention that here, in the hope that some of you have actually read this... **

**Anyhow, I don't own Professor Layton. Like, would I be writing fanfiction if I did? Honestly now * sighs and tuts *. Of course, all the characters and the basis of the storyline comes from the amazing Level-5 who shall forever remain amazing, since they came up with my favourite fandom ever. (Can't take me to court with that now, can you?)**

**Oh, one final thing. My inspiration for this fic came from two songs. **_Atmosphere _**by **_Joy Division,_** and **_Hurt- _**a song which has been covered many times, but the particular version that I used as a stimulus was **_Johnny Cash's _**version. **

**I hope you enjoy! :)**

* * *

A Perished Atmosphere

Prologue

* * *

It was snowing.

The Professor stood in the middle of the streets that were still filled with the terror of Dove's 'revenge'. Just above the horizon, ashes and smoke continued to rise, turning the white flakes into grey. The night sky was buried beneath a thick layer of clouds, but it wasn't dark. The light was painful and sharp; the street lamps glowed with a flame that burnt only to reveal the true devastation and peril of the night. Of course, the street the Professor stood in was perfectly safe and all the houses were still intact, since they'd luckily avoided the slaughtering behaviour of Dove's fortress. However, looking over the tops of three rows of houses, there was a drop in the pattern of the roofs and a burning blaze rose from above.

The flames crackled as the wind howled around it, swirling the fire around and pushing it further down the street. Cries and sirens echoed down from where the flames terrorised the centre of the city; everyone was alert. All the emergency services were firing through the city, the shrill noise of the three blazing sirens becoming a never-ending sound. The city was continuing to grow with chaos, even though the attack was over and Dove had been arrested nearly half an hour ago.

It was with the same with any war; no matter who had won the battle; for perhaps even many years, London would be scarred with this attack for a very long time. It would be going down in the history books. Maybe in a hundred years time, archaeologists, like the Professor himself, would be studying the event. The people of the future would be horrified by Dove's actions, just as the people of that day would be having nightmares until their death, of the sudden roar from the ground as Dove had burst through the surface. There couldn't be a single person in the city who had not lost somebody dear to them that night.

And that included the Professor.

Claire. A woman who had died ten years ago- to the day- had been there. Standing in a darkened alley that had seemed like a haven from the rest of the misery of the attack, Claire had become radiant. At first, the Professor had had to rub his eyes at the sight of her; surely it was just a trick of the moonlight as it contrasted with the close by flames. But, no, Claire's body had glowed with a white light... Then that had been it. She'd been gone. She had departed from the world for a second time.

The Professor held his beloved top hat, the one that was indeed given to him by Claire, in both his hands, as he stared up at the hidden night sky. He longed to look at the stars. Stargazing had been an activity himself and Claire had often enjoyed together, but that wasn't the reason he wished to gaze upon them. The light that had shone around Claire was exactly identical to the one that surrounded the stars. He wanted to feel that one bit closer to the woman he'd lost and loved just one more time.

He closed his eyes, inhaling deeply as he pictured her. Yet, as he repeated the memory to himself, the pain grew and grew. Still, he couldn't let go.

As the sound of footsteps echoed down the alley, the Professor opened his eyes and turned towards the sound of the person coming towards them.

"D-Dimitri?" The Professor frowned inwardly. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Dimitri Allen was someone he most certainly didn't want to see right now. Then again, there truly was only one person who he'd be glad to have the company of; unfortunately, that was beyond the impossible.

Dimitri stopped in his tracks and stared at the Professor, as he carefully placed the top hat back on his head. The scientist glanced around the alleyway several times in haste, before holding back a sigh.

"She-she's gone..." Dimitri said, his eyes seeming to be without emotion.

The Professor nodded slightly, holding the tip of his hat down, before looking up and over at his young apprentice, Luke, who had remained in the shadows of the darkened street since Claire had vanished, had stayed silent for such a long time that the Professor had almost forgotten him being there, which did indeed seem ridiculous; of all people, Luke was always in the Professor's shadow.

The Professor sighed and began to walk forward, back down the alley.

"Come now, Luke," the top-hatted man said, "Let us leave."

Although the young boy's face was creased in worry and concern, he hurried after his mentor. Just as the Professor turned the corner leading back to the streets, Luke turned around one last time and stared at the empty alley. He frowned. Today had certainly been strange. In fact, it would have been far more straight-forward if there _had _been a mystery to solve.

Glancing back around, Luke saw that the Professor was getting ahead of him.

"Professor! Wait!" Luke called, as he ran after the Professor.

The two reached the silent streets within a few minutes, the Professor keeping his face towards the ground.

"Such a devastation, wouldn't you agree, Luke?" the Professor mumbled towards his apprentice.

Luke furrowed his eyebrows, not sure what to respond with. In the end, he decided to agree. He would explain the events of today to his Father once he arrived home.

Reaching the red, shiny car- that had only two days ago been in for an MOT check- the two got in. Neither said a word to the other as they drove, each keeping their eyes on the road in front of them, white flakes of snow hitting the window, before they were hit with the metal wipers and burst into an oblivion.

* * *

**AN: I don't know if that made an awful lot of sense. To be honest, none of the prologue will matter until the epilogue. Ask questions if you will, but some I may be unable to answer.**

**Anyhow, reviews are fab! :) x**


End file.
